Transforming New Zealand employment relations: the role played by employer strategies, behaviours and attitudes

Rasmussen, E; Foster, B; Coetzee, B

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Rasmussen, E; Foster, B; Coetzee, B

Abstract

There has been a shift to individualised and workplace based employment relations in New Zealand. Researchers have canvassed many explanatory factors behind this shift but this paper focuses on the role played by employers. It draws on several surveys of employer attitudes and behaviours. These surveys have shown that the majority of employers have negative attitudes towards collective bargaining and they seek more employer determined flexibility. Employers are very supportive of post 2008 reductions in employment rights. Interestingly, many employers have yet to apply these legislative changes in their own workplace and it is unclear what future impact the legislative changes will have on the development of ‘positive employment relationships’.

Keywords

Employer attitudes; Individualisation; Deregulation; Flexibility; Employment standards

Date

2013

Source

ILERA Conference, Melbourne, Australia, 2013-04-09 to 2013-04-12

Item Type

Conference Contribution

Publisher

International Labour and Employment Relations Association (ILERA)

Publisher's Version

http://ilera2013.com/test/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/MASTER-ILERA-2013-Program-ARX.pdf

Rights Statement

NOTICE: this is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in (see Citation). The original publication is available at (see Publisher's Version).